Nokia today announced its financial results for the last quarter of its fiscal 2012 year. It had a pleasant surprise for its stockholders, reporting a profitable quarter after six quarters of losses. It saw an operating profit of US$585 billion (€439 million) on net sales of US$10.7 billion (€8.04 billion). According to CEO Stephen Elop,
“We are very encouraged that our team’s execution against our business strategy has started to translate into financial results. Most notably we are pleased that Nokia Group reached underlying operating profitability in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2012.
While the first half of 2012 was difficult for Nokia Group, in Q4 2012 we strengthened our financial position, improved our underlying operating margin in Devices & Services, introduced the HERE brand to expand our mapping and location experiences, and drove record profitability in Nokia Siemens Networks.
We remain focused on moving through our transition, which includes continuing to improve our product competitiveness, accelerate the way we operate and manage our costs effectively. All of these efforts are aimed at improving our financial performance and delivering more value to our shareholders.”
As it had previously announced, Nokia shipped 4.4 million Windows Phone Lumia devices during the quarter, up 51% from the 2.9 million the previous quarter. Of those, 700,000 were sold in North America, still Nokia’s smallest market. It also shipped another 2.2 million Symbian devices and 9.3 million Asha handsets.
Nokia expects that it could return to a loss in Q1 2013 due to “competitive industry dynamics” and Q1 typically being a slower quarter.
It remains to be seen if Nokia will announce new Lumia smartphones at MWC 2013. Recent rumours have pointed to a “true PureView Windows Phone” codenamed the Nokia EOS and the Nokia Catwalk.
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